Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/81698
Making a difference Jeannette Wilt is fighting to keep the joy in teaching I Jeannette Wilt is what you would call involved. n Delaware for only eight years, all of them at Brandywine High School, Jeannette Wilt partici- pates in the governance of BEA as an Association Rep and Legislative Chair, is a member of the DSEA Exec. Board, attends DSEA's big training events, county meetings…. OK – She's very involved. When she and her husband moved from Peekskill, NY for job opportu- nities here, she had already taught for nine years in New York. Imagine her surprise when she was assigned a duty period in the main office. "They wanted me to put mail in the mail boxes. What a misuse of my degrees and experience. I became an Association Rep right away!" she adds, wondering at the time, she says, what was wrong with the union! For Wilt that period is now used for meeting with other math teach- ers (her Professional Learning Community, or PLC). "We all teach the same subjects and can control what we discuss and explore, so that's good." System forcing us to think about what we need, not what our students need Today she's thinking how sad it is that teachers who took the Component 5 Evaluation training the previous week most likely aren't thinking about how excited they are about the great year they are going to have, but rather are thinking about which students will be in their cohort, and how they will most advantageously set their goals. "We're turning teaching into a numbers game. The system is forcing us to turn away from the to be BEA's Legislative Chair her third year at Brandywine, a posi- tion she has held since then. She has signed up to be an "Educator for Obama. "The joy in teaching," says Brandywine's Jeannette Wilt, "is in the caring we show our students and the joy we witness in them from our work together." students and to think about our- selves, as opposed to thinking about our students - and that's not right. I don't want to think like that. To make teachers grow, you don't scare them." She cites creative compa- nies, such as Google, which allow their employees freedom, knowing that freedom is what they need to develop new and better ideas and products. "Teachers are not encour- aged that way." Wilt is a certified mathematics teacher thanks to Eisenhower Grants and the jobs she had while attending Stonybrook University, where she earned a bachelor of sci- ence degree in mathematics, and New York University, where she earned a masters degree in mathe- matics education. This year she is teaching two classes of AP Statistics; two of col- lege prep statistics; and one of Conceptual Algebra I with a special education teacher (Algebra I for 9th graders). It's an LFS class (Learning Focussed Strategies), modified to align with the Common Core standards. "This is the second year we've been teaching it, so it is still a work in progress." Making students better citizens: voting is a privi- lege, not just an obligation Her goal is to help make kids bet- ter citizens, citizens who will use mathematics to make sound deci- sions, better understand what the news really means when people start throwing numbers around. And, of course, citizens who will exercise their right to vote. "Last year I realized that I taught over half of the senior class, kids who were old enough to vote for the first time." In addition to the usual reasons given for voting, Wilt also reminds herself of the women who fought and suffered so that women could win the right to vote. She agrees that we all have an obligation to vote, but that makes it sound like a chore: "It's really a privilege, hard-fought by real women, with real names, and real families." She remembers them and is ener- gized herself to participate in com- munity and political action. She has a keen awareness of civic involvement that comes from her own upbringing on Long Island; her family's values; the fact that she was able to go to college and gradu- ate school thanks to Eisenhour Grants; and, that former BEA President Dave Bradley asked her 24 September 2012 DSEA ACTION! Wilt (right) and Marie Cordivano work together at a DSEA leadership training. Both are "Educators for Obama." She can bring political action and community involvement down to street level pretty soon. She points to DPASII-Revised, the implementa- tion of Race to the Top, Common Core Standards, LFS being imple- mented throughout her school this year….. "If we don't have legisla- tors who share the same philosophy about public education's role, who will talk to us, visit us, see what is happening; who understand that we're not in this profession for the paycheck, but for the kids, then we will have laws, regulations, man- dates, policy, executive orders, and budgets that aren't reflective of our view of what it means to teach." Everyone, including educators, needs purpose, meaning in their lives, she believes, something altru- istic. "I worry that the current 'reform' trend is all about test num- bers and data. I keep reminding myself that my purpose is to help my students be better citizens by learning what I have to teach them. The joy in teaching is in the caring we show our students and the joy we witness in them from our work together." She has no problem asking her colleagues for an hour or two to walk with a DSEA-recommended candidate, or make some phone calls to members reminding them to vote in the Primary, or be a poll greeter on Election Day for an hour or two. Unlike the suffragettes of 1919, they don't have to go to jail for the privilege of exercising political action. www.dsea.org